


Captain Monkey goes Bananas

by MK_Yujji



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Brotp, Pining, matchmaking Natasha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28168044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MK_Yujji/pseuds/MK_Yujji
Summary: Natasha and Steve discuss FEELINGS.  Natasha is absolutelynotmatchmaking and Clint can't prove otherwise.
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, pre-Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - Relationship
Comments: 12
Kudos: 22
Collections: 2020 Captain America/Iron Man Holiday Exchange





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [drunkonwriting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunkonwriting/gifts).



> written for drunkonwriting in the Cap_IronMan Christmas exchange. The prompt I was going for was "Tony's love language is building things for people" and the likes of 'team as family' and 'Natasha&Tony friendship', though honestly, I kind of veered? Hopefully you like it!

It’s a testament to how much closer they’ve grown that Steve doesn’t even flinch when Natasha sprawls across his shoulders, sticking her nose into his hair before peering down at the one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art drawing tablet in his hands.

For all that he’s a large, good-natured puppy, Steve doesn’t usually react well to people touching him without warning and reacts even worse to people trying to look at his art unless he’s explicitly given them permission.

She supposes that means she’s moved firmly into ‘friend’ territory in his mind. Something shifted during the entire fiasco with Hydra’s reemergence and it seems to be holding steady.

He trusts her now, just like he said all those months ago in Sam’s guest room.

Before she can consider that any further or follow darker memories down their rabbit hole, he taps the corner of his screen and the static drawing becomes animated. She watches in amusement as a monkey dressed up as Captain America hops on a unicycle and staggers across the screen trying to juggle a handful of balls - one stylized as the shield, another with the SHIELD logo on it, one with an Army star, and a last one with the Avenger’s “A” - haphazardly while a cartoon Iron Man points and laughs.

Natasha can’t help but snort and hides her face against his shoulder. “This is what you’ve been doing during meetings?”

Oh, boys.

“Only the boring ones,” Steve quips, shrugging. 

She has no idea how he manages to maintain such a prim and proper reputation. “I don’t know if Tony would be scandalized or proud that you’re using his gift to ignore the Brass.”

Both, probably. Tony ends up buying into the reputation more often than he should for someone who actually lives with Steve and sees him drink milk straight from the carton or been subjected to the absolute disaster he’s tried to call a home cooked meal.

It’s probably those rose-colored fanboy glasses that he likes to pretend he doesn’t have for Captain America. 

He can’t lie to her, though. Natasha’s seen the video evidence of a childhood spent idolizing a propaganda steeped super soldier.

The tips of Steve’s ears turn red as he shrugs again. “Dunno.”

“Both,” Natasha informs him as gravely as she can manage. As hysterical as it’s been watching them dance around each other for the last few months, it’s reaching levels of pining that she hasn’t seen since Coulson first started looking at pictures of Lola. And unlike Coulson, it doesn’t look like either of them is going to actually cross the line into actual action any time soon.

This back and forth they’ve ended up in the middle of - where Tony tries to show his affection with gifts that he's made himself with adoring hands and Steve misses the affection part and tries to show his gratitude for the gifts with art that show far more of his heart than he probably intended - has provided her and Clint with no end of entertainment, but it’s easy to see where they’re working at cross purposes. Even with Bruce and Pepper’s explanation about Tony’s unique relationship with money, Steve needs the one thing Tony can’t bring himself to offer - an actual conversation. 

So they’ll be stuck in this limbo forever, each convinced the other can’t possibly feel the same, if she doesn’t do something about it. 

Reaching down, she grabs the tablet and eyeballs it. Steve doesn’t even protest, just sighs in exasperation and waits for her to finish inspecting it. He’s been using it pretty much non-stop since Tony gifted to him after receiving a hand drawn comic bound with yarn. “I’m sure you realize that this is eons beyond anything else that any other artist in the world could even dream of using?”

“I’m aware, yes.” 

“And that Tony found it important enough to spend three days having JARVIS research all the things an artist might want and where all the other programs and drawing tablets in the world fell short _and_ bugging me about every thing I’d ever heard you say about art just so that he could make _you_ a special, one-of-a-kind, unbreakable drawing tablet.”

Natasha pulls back far enough that she can see him look shifty and defensive. “He said all the paper was giving him hives.”

“He was lying.” She sighs and hands the tablet back. Then she shifts completely off of him and settles on the couch beside him, tucking her feet under his thigh. “Steve. He _likes_ you. He likes seeing you happy. That’s why the gifts. “ 

Normally she wouldn’t be this direct, but it’s the only way that Steve won’t end up dragging himself to the complete wrong conclusion. He’s not usually this willfully dumb, it’s just something Tony seems to bring out in him. Like he wants it so much that he just can’t believe it’s true. 

“Pretty sure the motorcycle was just to keep me off the subway.”

The memory of _why_ he was on the subway in the first place pops into her head as it always does whenever the subject comes up and she can’t help but snicker a little. Only Steve Rogers would think to throw a motorcycle at a quinjet. She’s taught him better since, about thinking through the future consequences, but she can’t deny it was a fine piece of improvising. 

The bike that Tony had built after finding out about it was made of sterner stuff. _And_ it had built in options so that tossing the entire bike wouldn’t have to be Steve’s best strategy.

“Steve. Building things is Tony’s love language. It’s the only way he knows how to say he cares short of throwing money at you.”

“He builds things for all of us, Nat.”

And while that’s definitely true, even Steve has the good grace to look chagrined because it’s hardly the same thing at all. “yes. He’s very good at making sure the team is properly outfitted for our continued fight with HYDRA. And AIM. And Ten Rings. My new Widow’s Bites are absolutely works of art and if I have to hear about the new arrows in Clint’s quiver one more time, I might actually stab him with them.”

That isn’t true, of course. It’s both important to know exactly what her partner is bringing to any fight and it makes him ridiculously happy to yammer on about them. She’ll listen to him as long as he wants. 

If she ever stabs Clint, it’ll be over his continued insistence that pineapple belonged on pizza.

The quirk of a grin Steve flashes her way says that he knows that just as well as she does. For all that he has a blindspot about his own crush, he saw what was between her and Clint quicker than most. Even Tony can’t decide for sure if they’re fucking or soul siblings or somewhere in between.

Keeping him guessing about it will never stop being funny.

“Oh shut, up, that’s not the point,” she grouses even though Steve hasn’t said a word and nudges him with one foot. “The point is, that if you ask him out, he will say yes.”

“Nat-“

Natasha taps the screen of the tablet and Captain Monkey stills his mad juggling. “He is trying, in his uniquely Tony way, to make you happy. To learn about what might do that and to give it to you. Should I tell you about the strawberries he once gave Pepper?”

“Isn’t she allergic?” Steve asks, scrunching up his nose. Because of course he remembers a half thrown away comment made one night over ice cream in the communal room. 

“He was trying. He isn’t always good at it, but if he really cares then he tries his hardest.”

Everything he’s made for Steve has been met with resounding success, though. Not just the motorcycle and the drawing tablet, but also the mechanical turtle and the little wings on his new helmet. Not just the improvements to his shield and his punching bag, but also the Roomba that followed him around and called him Captain Muscles.

Steve takes the practical and the whimsical and loves all of them. It’s adorable just how much he loves everything Tony makes for him. Even Pepper thinks so.

“He does, doesn’t he?”

And sure, it’s not a declaration to go sweep Tony off his feet, but that’s fine. It’s a step in the right direction instead of the endless loop he’s been stuck in. 

Natasha gives herself a mental pat on the back and mentally adjusts the date for her pick in the betting pool.

{the end}


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally going to make this a sequel, but in retrospect, it works better as just another Chapter to the first instead of a completely separate stand alone fic. 
> 
> I do still have one more scene in mind before bringing this all to a close. Haven't decided yet if I'll actually write it.

~*~*~*~

“So, when are you going to put him out of his misery and sweep him off his feet like a proper gentleman should?”

Natasha smirks as Tony almost jumps completely out of his skin at her sudden appearance at his elbow. For once the music in his workshop isn’t at ear bleeding levels, but his lack of situational awareness is still going to get him killed some day. She’ll teach him better if it kills them both. “You need bells, Donatello.”

“First off, I am clearly Casey Jones. And you’re avoiding the question.”

For about 10 seconds, he looks like he’s trying to decide on the best way to deflect her, but she can see the exact moment he decides that it won’t be worth the effort. His shoulders slump and he leans back against his work table. “There’s no point. He’s… him. And I’m me. And never the twain shall meet and all that jazz. Best case scenario, he lowers himself to say yes and I ruin everything like I did with Pepper.”

He absolutely deserves the way she smacks the back of his head for that. She’s not _surprised_ that the insecurity he tries to hide under all his bluster is rearing it’s ugly head, she’s just determined not to let it win the day. “Bullshit. If you weren’t going to be any good for each other, I’d have put an end to the pining ages ago. And Pepper made the very adult decision to realize that the two of you needed different things to be happy in the long run. That’s not the same thing as either of you ‘ruining’ it. ”

Being an assassin and a spy had involved less couples’ counseling, but not as much as one might assume. 

“I don’t know, Natasha. The risk/reward equation doesn’t add up in my favor here.” He holds up a hand to silence her protest. “If it was just me and him, maybe. But it’s not. You all _live_ here now. If he and I implode, from me making him uncomfortable and him rejecting me _or_ from us just… trying and failing… That’s going to fuck up a lot of things. A lot more than just me and him.”

At least Tony is actually considering a positive response from Steve a possibility. “Okay. First of all, the team is not going to get fucked up. At worst, things are a little awkward for a while, but we are all professionals. The job comes first and no one feels that way more than you and Steve. Second, this place is huge. You can go a month without seeing anyone else if you exert even the smallest amount of effort. Third, that man is loyal to the point of actual stupidity and he’s lost so, so much. When he agrees to date you, he is going to hold on with both hands to the point that you’re probably going to need to invent some new machine to pry him loose. You are never going to meet another person more determined to make it work than Steve Rogers.”

Tony huffs a laugh. “He does give stubborn an entirely new level of definition doesn’t he?”

“He does, indeed.”

“He liked the tablet okay?” There’s a diffidence in the way that Tony refuses to look at her as he asks, determinedly staring at the screwdriver in his hands like it’s the most fascinating thing he’s ever seen, that most people wouldn’t have thought Tony Stark capable of. Which just goes to show how little people actually know the man versus the brand.

Honestly, she’s pretty sure they need each other just so that they can have someone that can get under those masks they wear and stay there. If they’re very lucky, they’ll be able to give each other what Clint has always given her - time and space to take off the masks and just be Natasha. It’ll do them both a world of good.

“He hasn’t put it down since you gave it to him.”

“Was he drawing on it in the last meeting?”

Grinning, she hops up and settles on a clean looking space on the table beside him where she can press her knee against his ribs. “He made a cartoon, actually. You should ask to see it, it’s adorable if a little telling.”

Tony gives her a questioning look and she shrugs. “I’m no therapist, but it’s pretty obvious he thinks he’s a performing monkey.”

“Captain Monkey strikes again?” Tony asks, tone fond and knowing. It’s his turn to explain, though and he does so quickly enough at her arched brow. “Dad had a little notebook of Steve’s drawings and more than a few of them featured Captain Monkey. I probably still have it tucked away somewhere.”

“Ah.” She hadn’t realized that Steve’s issues stretched back that far, but she supposes it isn’t that surprising. They’d literally had him performing shows before he’d finally made it out on the front lines, after all. She nudges Tony again. “So you’ll talk to him.”

Exasperated, he still presses against her side. “I like how you didn’t even make that a question. Just a statement of fact.”

“Obviously,” she replies with a smirk. “You’re way too smart to keep second-guessing yourself like this.”

He sighs. “You’re annoyingly smug.”

He didn’t say she was wrong, though. Like she said. He's smart like that.


End file.
